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By    J.    L.    M.    CVRRY 


Library  of  the 
University  of  ^North  Carolina 

Endowed  by  the  Dialectic  and  Philan- 
thropic Societies 


Q>9l?_C3^> 


The  South 
in  the  Olden  Time 


J.  L.  M.  CURRY 


[From  Publications  of  Southern  History  Association, 
January,  1901.] 


Harrisburg,  Pa.  : 

Harrisburg  Publishing  Company 

1901 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hil 


http://archive.org/details/southinoldentimecurr 


THE  SOUTH  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME. 

By  J.  L.  M.  Curry. 

Probably  no  people  nor  institutions  have  been  more 
misunderstood  than  those  of  the  Southern  States.  One 
need  not  go  far  to  find  the  cause.  Southern  books  and 
newspapers  are  little  read.  Their  circulation  is  mainly 
local  and  provincial.  The  war  between  the  States  so  un- 
expectedly protracted,  the  terrible  casualties  connected 
therewith,  involving  so  many  families,  political  antagon- 
isms, and  the  discolored  and  exaggerated  statements  in 
fiction  and  more  serious  literature  and  in  partisan 
speeches,  have  prevented  the  calm  investigation  and  the 
sound  judgment  given  to  other  questions  which  have  not 
so  much  sentimentality.  One  speech  in  the  Senate  pre- 
cipitated a  war  with  Spain.  One  novel  was  largely  in- 
strumental in  exciting  the  Northern  mind  to  a  determina- 
tion of  "no  Union  with  slaveholders." 

Unanimous  Satisfaction  Over  Abolition. 

The  South  retained  the  "peculiar  institution"  of  Afri- 
can slavery,  fastened  on  her  against  her  protests,  while 
the  North,  where  it  existed  in  every  State  at  the  time  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  1776,  liberated  herself 
from  it  more  than  half  a  century  ago.  The  "institution" 
for  many  reasons  became  so  incorporated  in  the  social, 
political  and  industrial  life  of  the  South  that  its  sever- 
ance, by  slow  and  natural  causes,  was  almost  an  impos- 
sibility. Property  interests,  pride  of  opinion,-  jealousy  of 
alien  interference,  resistance  to  aspersions  and  aggres- 
sions, consolidated  the  South  and  induced  action  which 
under  other  conditions  would  have  been  the  very  reverse. 
That  is  made  plain  by  the  unanimity  which  now  exists  of 


O 
-i 


satisfaction  at  abolition,  of  unwillingness  at  any  cost  to 
have  the  negroes  reenslaved,  and  of  the  depth  of  con- 
viction that  slave  labor,  instead  of  being  a  benefit,  was 
the  prolific  parent  of  a  thousand  evils. 

Southern  Civilization. 
The  marked  civilization  which  distinguished  the  South 
was  not  altogether  due  to  slavery,  but  unquestionably  it 
largely  contributed  to  the  creation  and  maintenance  of 
certain  social  peculiarities  which  are  rapidly  disappearing. 
In  proportion  to  the  whole  white  population  the  slave- 
holders were  few  in  number,  and  of  those  who  owned 
slaves  a  very  large  majority  owned  only  a  few,  from  one 
to  five.  When  slaves  were  held  in  numbers  sufficiently 
large  to  give  character  to  the  plantation,  some  results 
were  easily  discovered.  The  estates  were  large  and  this 
necessitated  overseers  or  subordinate  managers,  the  con- 
centration of  labor  on  a  few  crops,  and  prevented  that 
desirable  subdivision  of  land  which  improves  agriculture 
and  gives  to  a  country  an  independent  yeomanry.  Popu- 
lation was  sparse,  roads  were  neglected,  free  schools 
could  not  be  established,  and  the  estates  became  a  species 
of  baronies,  where  the  lords  of  the  manor  exercised  an 
inferior  government  quite  apart  from  the  general  civil 
jurisdiction. 

Slaveholders  and  Statesmanship. 

As  a  rule,  the  owners  of  many  slaves  and  of  large  plan- 
tations were  men  of  intelligence,  of  masterful  qualities 
and  often  of  much  culture.  Governing  a  community  of  de- 
pendents in  such  a  way  as  to  temper  control  with  modera- 
tion and  justice,  to  exact  obedience  and  steady  labor  with- 
out provoking  ill-feeling,  rebellion,  escape  or  anarchy,  to 
insist  upon  order  and  authority  and  have,  at  the  same 
time,  cheerful  and  productive  work  and  great  affection, 
developed    a    habit    of    government    at    home    which   was 


ripened  into  statesmanship  on  larger  fields.  The  isola- 
tion of  plantation  life  and  unshared  responsibility  stimu- 
lated individuality,  self-reliance,  acting  on  one's  own  judg- 
ment. In  most  matters  of  domestic  concern  there  was  no 
public  opnion  to  which  they  could  be  referred,  no  tribunal 
for  arbitration,  and  the  master  was,  under  the  general 
laws  of  the  Commonwealth,  the  sole  and  supreme  legisla- 
tive and  executive  authority.  This  independence,  self- 
government,  and  the  presence  of  a  subject  class  made  the 
slaveholder  the  vigilant,  sometimes  hasty  protector  of  the 
honor  of  himself  and  family,  the  stern  advocate  of  limita- 
tions upon  the  powers  of  the  civil  government  and  the 
valiant  defender  of  the  liberties  of  his  race.  Hence, 
Burke's  well-known  tribute  to  the  unconquerable  love  of 
freedom  and  manly  insistence  upon  their  rights,  of  the 
Southern  colonies  in  the  earliest  days  of  conflict  with  the 
mother  country. 

The;  Neighborhood  Store  a  Civic  Center. 

That  slaveholders  were  the  leaders  in  politics  and  held 
many  influential  positions  in  the  State  and  the  Federal 
governments  is  not  strange.  Where  people  were  segre- 
gated and  families  were  sometimes  miles  apart,  the  court 
house,  the  militia  musters,  the  elections,  the  public  speak- 
ings, the  rural  churches,  were  the  places  and  the  occa- 
sions for  the  discussion  of  agricultural  needs,  of  prices  of 
products,  of  taxes,  of  conduct  of  representatives  and  pub- 
lic officers,  of  neighborhood  affairs.  The  shire-town  was 
generally  a  small  village  and  offered  no  inducements  for 
assemblages  of  the  people,  except  when  twice  a  year  the 
Circuit  Courts  were  held.  In  nearly  every  country 
neighborhood  was  a  store  where  everything  of  a  miscel- 
laneous character  was  kept,  and  at  the  same  place  was  the 
post  office.  Every  day  persons,  not  kept  at  home  by 
necessary  work,  were  at  these  stores,  and  everything  per- 
taining to  human  life  was  brought  under  consideration. 


What  more  natural  and  proper  than  that  those  who  had 
wealth,  were  men  of  affairs,  were  familiar  with  markets, 
read  newspapers  and  traveled,  should  be  consulted  and 
deferred  to.  When,  as  often  happened,  there  were  present 
those  who  had  been  in  the  Legislature  or  in  Congress  or 
had  visited  the  seaport  cities  to  buy  merchandise  or  sell 
produce,  they  would  be  called  on  for  information  or  opin- 
ions, and  they  were  listened  to  with  respect  and  atten- 
tion. My  earliest  recollection  is  associated  with  spon- 
taneous, somewhat  unpremeditated,  gatherings  of  farm- 
ers at  stores  and  the  conversational  discussion  of  ques- 
tions far  beyond  my  boyish  comprehension. 

Majority  of  Farmers  Without  Slaves. 

It  is  worthy  of  mention  that  nearly  every  person  look- 
ed forward  to  the  time  when  family  work  or  cares  would 
be  lightened  by  the  ownership  of  a  slave.  Still,  I  have 
known  hundreds  of  lawyers,  doctors,  merchants,  farmers, 
preachers,  mechanics  who  did  not  in  their  own  right  pos- 
sess slaves.  The  majority  of  farmers  had  no  slaves,  but 
sometimes  hired  them  by  the  year.  These  farmers  worked 
their  own  fields  side  by  side  with  the  negroes  and  their 
children.  The  widely  prevalent  notion  that  the  cultivation 
of  cotton  and  tobacco  at  the  South  is,  or  ever  was,  de- 
pendent upon  negro  labor  is  an  error,  unsupported  by 
fact.  Far  more  than  half  of  the  present  ten  million  bales 
of  cotton  have  been  produced  by  white  labor.  The  stig- 
ma of  "poor  whites,"  so  often  used  in  derision  and  con- 
tempt, is  unwarranted  and  grossly  unjust.  Many  non- 
slaveholders  and  persons  of  small  means  have,  in  peace 
and  in  war,  signalized  their  lives  by  all  the  virtues  which 
ennoble  humanity  and  advance  civilization. 

Illiteracy  Not  Ignorance  Then. 

Illiteracy  was  unfortunately  not  confined  to  the 
negroes,  as  sparseness  of  population  prevented  State  sys- 
tems of  free  schools.     It  would  be  an  erroneous  inference 


that  these  illiterate  people  were  wholly  uninformed.  The 
assemblages  to  which  reference  has  been  made  were  valu- 
able schools  and  educatory  in  a  high  degree.  In  ante- 
bellum days  political  discussions  prevailed  universally. 
Candidates  for  governorship,  Congress,  for  Legislature, 
often  for  other  offices,  engaged  in  joint  discussion  before 
the  people.  Appointments  were  made  for  public  speak- 
ing, time  was  divided  equally  among  contestants  or  be- 
tween parties,  and  for  hours  there  was  earnest  attention 
to  debates  upon  the  most  important  questions.  Let  me 
illustrate.  In  1847  and  1853,  when  a  candidate  for  the 
Alabama  Legislature,  education,  finances,  taxation,  State 
aid  to  railways,  were  discussed.  In  1855,  when  the  Know- 
Nothing  or  American  party,  was  seeking  power  in  the 
State  and  Federal  governments,  the  tenets  and  purposes 
of  that  party  were  presented  by  the  chosen  champions  on 
each  side.  In  1856,  as  a  candidate  for  Presidential  elec- 
tor, and  in  1857  and  1859,  when  seeking  a  seat  in  Con- 
gress, making  forty  or  fifty  speeches  in  the  district,  the 
issues  were  internal  improvements  by  the  general  Gov- 
ernment, distribution  of  the  proceeds  of  public  lands,  veto 
power,  tariff,  expenditures,  power  of  Congress  over  the 
Territories,  "Squatter  Sovereignty,"  and  in  i860  and  1861, 
right  and  expediency  of  secession  and  relation  of  the 
States  to  the  Federal  Union.    In  those  days,  while  parties 

No  Bossism,  No  Contributions,  No  Corruption. 

were  distinct  and  party  feeling  was  strong,  party  ma- 
chinery hardly  had  an  existence ;  "bossism"  was  unknown, 
voting  by  sections  was  unheard  of.  As  a  general  rule, 
each  man  voted  as  an  independent  citizen  and  bribery  or 
corruption  in  elections,  when  it  occurred,  made  the  place 
and  persons  a  by-word  and  a  scorn.  My  contests  for  the 
Legislature  and  for  seats  in  the  Federal  and  Confederate 
Congress   cost  me  practically  nothing.     The  whole   ex- 


8 

pense  was  covered  by  a  few  hotel  bills,  announcement  of 
candidacy  in  the  newspapers  and  the  printing  of  tickets. 

Not  a  Dollar  for  Campaign  Expenses. 
In  the  eight  times  I  sought  the  suffrage  of  the  electors 
of  county  and  district  and  State,  I  did  not  pay  a  dollar 
for  campaign  expenses ;  no  such  contribution  was  asked 
or  expected,  and  I  never  knew  of  a  dollar  being  paid  for 
a  vote  or  a  nomination. 

No  Social  Divisions  Among  Whites. 
There  was  in  the  ante-bellum  days  no  perceptible  social 
division  between  slaveholders  and  non-slaveholders  as 
classes.  No  sharp  lines  of  separation  were  drawn  be- 
tween them.  In  marriage,  in  visiting,  in  office  holding, 
in  professional  or  other  employment,  no  question  was 
raised  as  to  the  ownership  of  slaves  or  interest  in  this 
species  of  property.  I  recall  several  members  of  Con- 
gress who  held  no  slaves.  Merit,  respectability,  virtue, 
was  the  open  sesame  to  dinners,  entertainments,  marital 
relations.  Color  drew  a  broad  and  ineffaceable  line  of 
demarcation.  The  least  taint  of  inferior  racial  blood 
operated  semper  ubique  as  an  exclusion.  Piety,  church 
membership,  was  not  the  social  standard,  but  integrity 
and  proper  treatment  of  slaves  were.  I  have  known 
wealthy  men,  according  to  the  estimate  of  wealth  in  those 
days,  indicted  and  convicted  for  the  cruel  treatment  of 
their  negroes.  The  counts  of  the  indictment  were  insuf- 
ficient food  and  clothing,  over  work  and  harsh  and  un- 
usual punishment.  The  marriage  relationship  was 
sacred.  A  person  divorced  for  other  cause  than  the  awful 
sin  of  adultery  was  tabooed.  Separation  of  husband  and 
wife  was  tantamount  to  social  proscription.  The  family 
was  the  unit  and  relationship  of  the  worthy  to  a  remote 
degree  was  recognized,  and  the  bond  of  fellowship  em- 
braced all  except  those  who  offended  the  laws  of  decency 
and  honesty. 


Purs  Anglo-Saxon  Blood. 

The  white  population  of  the  Southern  States  was  An- 
glo-Saxon. Homogeneity  was  not  much  disturbed  by 
alien  immigration.  It  often  excites  remark  and  surprise 
to  find  that  Southerners  know  their  kin  in  different  States 
and  have  such  minute  personal  knowledge  of  many  famil- 
ies. 

Hospitality  a  Characteristic. 

Home  was  sacred  and  the  dearest  place  on  earth,  and 
Christmas  was  the  time  for  reunion,  from  grandparents  to 
grandchildren.  It  was  not  uncommon  to  see  from  twen- 
ty-five to  sixty  relatives  seated  at  the  bounteous  board. 
In  the  country,  with  a  sparse  population,  clubs  and 
theatres  did  not  exist  to  seduce  young  men  from  parental 
supervision.  Between  parents  and  children  the  inter- 
course ordinarily  was  unconstrained  and  affectionate. 
Schoolmates  often  spent  the  night  with  their  fellows,  and 
this  neighborly  courtesy  was  freely  reciprocated.  Co- 
education in  the  country  schools  and  academies  was  uni- 
versal, and  no  harm  but  much  benefit  came  from  this 
companionship.  Hospitality  abounded  and  was  a  charac- 
teristic trait.  There  was  rarely  a  single  night  for  years 
when  there  was  not  under  the  roofs  of  my  neighbors  a 
welcome  guest.  The  entertainment  was  without  formal- 
ity, and  the  guests  were  treated,  and  acted,  as  members 
of  the  family.  With  the  slaveholders,  or  with  such  of 
them  as  had  a  number  of  dependents,  the  cost  and  trouble 
of  entertaining  were  almost  nil.  The  table  for  the  family 
bountifully  supplied  needed  no  additions.  There  was  lit- 
tle economy,  perhaps  much  waste,  in  the  food  provided, 
for  what  was  unconsumed  by  the  "white  folks,"  to  use  the 
common  phrase  of  the  black  people,  was  used  in  the 
kitchen,  or  in  "the  quarter,"  as  the  village  where  the  ne- 
groes had  their  houses  was  called.  Gardens  supplied 
vegetables;  the   orchards,   fruits.     Corn,   ripe    or   green, 


10 

peas,  pumpkins,  sweet  potatoes,  watermelons,  etc.,  were 
in  the  fields.  Besides  cooks  and  maids  and  butlers,  etc., 
the  children,  too  young  for  outdoor  work,  or  selected  for 
skill  and  intelligence,  were  on  hand  to  do  superfluous  or 

House  Parties  oe  Seventy. 

extra  work.  The  entertainment  in  the  country  included 
horses.  I  have  been  at  houses  where  seventy  guests,  with 
nearly  as  many  horses,  were  cared  for  during  three  or 
four  days.  The  one-crop  system,  pernicious  in  the  light 
of  political  economy,  left  but  few  products  for  market. 
When  cotton,  tobacco,  sugar,  rice,  and  sometimes  wheat 
and  corn  were  sold,  nothing  else  had  a  marketable  value. 
To  sell  milk  or  butter  or  vegetables,  was  an  unknown 
commercial  transaction.  Watermelons,  apples,  peaches, 
cherries,  turnips  were  free.  At  least,  persons  traveling 
on  the  road,  did  not  regard  it  as  wrong,  or  forbidden,  or 
any  violation  of  rights  of  property,  to  enter  orchards  or 
fields  and  take  what  was  wanted  for  immediate  personal 
use.  This  prodigal  living  has  often  been  condemned,  and 
is  described  here  to  give  a  true  picture  of  the  South. 

No  Isms,  No  Skepticism. 

The  country  churches  have  been  mentioned  as  furnish- 
ing opportunities  for  talking  over  questions  of  common 
concern.  Conflicts  as  to  the  Sundays  of  worship  were 
avoided  as  far  as  possible,  and  accessible  places,  within 
six  or  eight  miles,  had  a  general  attendance.  Ecclesiasti- 
cal or  denominational  differences,  while  fully  recognized, 
did  not  interfere  with  social  or  political  affiliations. 
Neighborliness,  kinship,  personal  friendships,  did  not  al- 
low ecclesiastical  estrangements.  The  religion  was  of  the 
accepted  orthodox  character.  The  new  isms  were  un- 
known or  promptly  rejected.  Infidelity  or  skepticism, 
used  in  a  broad,  undefined  sense,  was  regarded  with  hor- 
ror and  not  unfrequently  made  synonymous  with  untrust- 
%       worthiness.     Sickness   in   a   family  called   forth   practical 


II 

sympathy  and  helpfulness.  Funerals  or  burials  had  the 
presence  of  the  whole  community  as  a  mark  of  respect  or 
to  honor  those  highly  esteemed. 

Reciprocity  in  Kindness. 

Agricultural  life  evoked  much  helpful  cooperation  in 
cases  of  exigency  or  special  need,  and  these  services, 
cheerfully  rendered,  were  always  returned  in  full  tale. 
Not  to  reciprocate  put  one  as  much  without  the  pale  as 
if  he  had  committed  a  dishonorable  act. 

Snake-head  Railroads. 

That  useful  vadc  mecum,  the  World's  Almanac,  gives  the 
total  track  of  railways  in  the  United  States  at  245,238 
miles,  and  the  passengers  carried  as  514,982,288;  904,633 
miles  of  telegraph  wire,  with  61,398,157  messages,  and 
772,989  miles  of  telephone  wire.  When  we  consider  how 
our  country  is  now  covered  with  a  net  work  of  railways 
and  telegraph  and  telephone  wires,  it  is  hard  to  realize 
how  recent  was  their  origin  and  how  rapid  has  been  their 
progress.  In  my  boyhood  days,  railways  were  few  and 
short.  In  Alabama,  in  1843,  there  were  only  two,  one 
around  Muscle  Shoals,  and  the  other  between  Mont- 
gomery and  Franklin,  and  it  was  put  down  on  string 
pieces  with  flat-iron  bars,  which,  torn  up  by  wheels, 
occasionally  projected  into  the  cars,  impaling  passengers 
on  what  were  termed  "snake-heads/'  In  1843,  en  route  to 
Harvard,  I  traveled  from  Augusta  to  Charleston  by  rail, 
built  nearly  all  the  way  on  trestle  work,  and  by  steamer 

The  Stagedriver  a  Chance  for  the  Pen  and  Pencil. 

from  Charleston  to  Wilmington.  Much  travel  in  those 
days  was  on  horseback,  or  in  hacks,  or  picturesque  stage 
coaches,  which  signalled  their  arrival  in  towns  and  vil- 
lages, and  notified  the  taverns  of  number  of  passengers 
by  long  tin  horns  or  by  making'  more  ambitious  music 
on  bugles.    The  stagedrivers  knew  everybody  on  the  road, 


12 


carried  packages  and  messages,  and  were  sometimes  the 
confidants  of  country  lasses  and  bashful  beaux.  The 
Bonifaces  are  often  drawn  in  character  sketches,  but  the 
stagedriver  of  the  olden  time,  a  typical  class,  has  escaped 
portraiture  by  pen  or  pencil.  Romances  of  the  road  are 
unused  material. 

Shinplastkrs. 
In  these  days  of  plentiful  gold  and  silver,  inquiries  are 
sometimes  made  of  me  about  shinplasters.  During  the 
financial  stress,  beginning  with  1837,  in  the  absence  of 
a  sound  circulating  medium  of  "specie"  or  bank  notes, 
banks,  corporations,  towns,  stores  and  individuals  issued 
small  notes  for  the  fractional  part  of  a  dollar,  to  be  re- 
deemed in  current  bills  when  the  sum  of  five  dollars  was" 
presented.  These  notes,  usually  printed  on  thin  and 
worthless  paper,  were  circulated  far  and  wide,  and  when 
mutilated,  as  soon  occurred  from  handling,  or  sent  so  far 
away  as  never  to  return,  the  issue  of  the  notes  enured  to 
the  benefit  of  the  voluntary  banker.  A  number  of  these 
notes  are  now  before  me,  and  were  issued  in  South  Caro- 
lina, Alabama,  Georgia  and  Tennessee,  one,  on  the 
Union  Bank,  Pulaski,  Tennessee,  sent  out  in  1837,  is 
decorated  by  a  pretentious  stage  coach,  full  of  passengers, 
drawn  by  four  stylish  horses. 

Caricatures  on  Slavery. 
On  no  single  phase  of  life  or  civilization  has  the  South 
been  so  much  misunderstood  and  misrepresented  as  on 
the  subject  of  slavery,  in  its  varied  and  manifold  connec- 
tions. The  caricatures  of  the  relation  of  master  and  ser- 
vant in  popular  fiction,  the  honor  of  canonization  con- 
ferred on  John  Brown,  whose  acts  can  find  excuse  or  pal- 
liation solely  on  the  plea  of  insanity,  or  fanaticism  run 
mad;  the  descriptions  of  superficial  observers  like  Dickens, 
Hall,  Featherstonhaugh,  have  made  impressions  which, 
however    unjust,    are    almost    impossible    of    eradication. 


13 

That  there  were  cruel  taskmasters,  that  slavery  had  in- 
defensible features  and  consequences,  no  reasonable  per- 
son can  deny,  any  more  than  he  can  deny  cruelty  in  hus- 
bands, neglect  in  fathers  and  oppression  in  employers 
since  the  world  began.  The  relation  of  master  and  ser- 
vant was  not  one,  generally,  of  hardship  or  cruelty.  After 
the  exaction  of  labor,  not  paid  for  in  money  wages,  the 
interest  of  owners  dictated  such  treatment  as  would  not 
impair  the  productiveness  or  value  of  labor,  nor  depreci- 
ate the  property.  Apart  from  humanity,  selfishness  made 
it  desirable  and  necessary,  in  food,  clothing,  shelter,  ser- 
vice, to  consult  the  physical  well-being  of  the  slave.  A 
standard  of  morals  and  of  intelligence,  as  far  as  com- 
patible with  the  condition  of  servitude,  also  enhanced  his 
pecuniary  and  industrial  value.  Bearing  in  mind  the  fact, 
the  biblical  fact,  the  legal  fact,  the  traditional  fact,  that 
property  in  man  existed  and  was  to  be  maintained,  the  re- 
lation of  master  and  servant  was  one,  in  the  main,  of  good 
treatment,  kindness  and  affection. 

A  Radical  Revolution  in  Southern  Views. 

Of  course,  it  is  difficult  for  persons  outside  the  South, 
or  born  since  1861,  to  form  even  a  partial  conception  of 
slavery  as  it  existed  before  secession.  As  well  may  the 
people  of  Cuba  or  the  Philippine  Islands,  fifty  years 
hence,  be  expected  to  understand  the  Cuba  and  Philip- 
pines of  1898.  Since  i860,  Southern  sentiment  and  law 
have  undergone  a  radical  revolution.  Nine  hundred  and 
ninety  out  of  every  one  thousand  white  people  in  the 
South  rejoice  that  the  negro  is  unalterably  free,  and  about 
the  same  ratio  regards  slavery  as  a  wrong,  or  a  gross 
economical  blunder.  As  Mr.  Lincoln's  policy  and  earnest 
effort  at  deportation  were  not  accomplished,  a  less  ratio 
concedes  that  citizenship  was  an  unavoidable  consequence 
of  emancipation.     Now  comes  "the  rub"  which  Northern 


H 

Negro  Suffrage  an  Indescribable  Blunder. 

opinion  fails  to  grasp.  Suffrage  was  not  a  legal  nor  a 
desirable  sequence  of  emancipation  or  citizenship,  and  has 
been  a  curse  to  the  South,  to  the  whole  Nation,  and  so 
far  as  the  negroes  are  concerned,  in  their  bewildering 
freedom,  an  indescribable  blunder.  Denounced  as  the 
South  may  be  for  its  persistent  opposition  to  negro  suf- 
frage in  the  aggregate,  it  may  as  well  be  understood  that 
the  conviction  will  increase  in  intensity  unless  deporta- 
tion or  diffusion,  or  some  other  effective  agency,  reduce 
the  evils  of  the  congestion  of  the  black  population.  The 
Southern  people  approve  the  limitation  of  the  elective 
franchise  as  ordained  by  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
Louisiana,  Mississippi  and  South  Carolina.  The  more 
intelligent  and  conservative  regard  an  educational  quali- 
fication as  an  indispensable  condition  precedent  to  voting, 
and  coincide  with  the  most  worthy  and  remarkable  leader 
of  his  race,  Mr.  Booker  T.  Washington,  in  wishing  the 
same  restriction  made  applicable  to  both   races   and   en- 

Impoverished  Whites  and  Negro  Education. 

forced  with  equal  justice  and  impartiality.  Hard  as  has 
been  the  burden,  which  the  general  Government,  wicked- 
ly, cruelly,  suicidally,  has  refused  to  aid  the  South  in  bear- 
ing, thus  abdicating  the  logical  and  patriotic  duty  in- 
separably connected  with  emancipation  and  citizenship 
and  suffrage,  every  Southern  State  has  established  a  pub- 
lic school  system,  sustained  by  taxation,  conferring  equal 
school  privileges  upon  the  two  races.  The  Bureau  of 
Education  says  the  South  has  expended  since  the  war 
over  $100,000,000  for  the  education  of  the  negro.  It 
should  not  be  forgotten  by  the  censorious  that  fully  $90,- 
000,000  of  this  money  came  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  im- 
poverished white  people. 


15 

The  Virulence  of   Race   Prejudice. 

The  friction  between  races  at  the  South  finds  painful 
parallel  in  New  York,  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois.  It  is  but 
fair  to  remember  that  the  negroes,  in  the  Northern  towns 
and  cities,  where  mob  violence  occurred,  were  insignificant 
in  numbers.  Lawlessness  and  revenge  were  far  less  ex- 
cusable, in  the  light  of  relative  provocation,  than  in  the 
South  where  the  negroes  outnumbered  the  incensed  white 
people.  The  virulence  of  race  prejudice  overwhelmed  the 
forces  of  law  and  order  in  communities  where  the  in- 
habitants were,  in  part,  of  New  England  origin,  and  where 
an  appeal  to  competent  civil  authority  should  have  had 
prompt  and  protective  response.  Some  one  has  said  that 
there  is  no  alchemy  to  get  golden  conduct  out  of  leaden 
instincts.  Infuriated  mobs  violate  recklessly  all  laws,  hu- 
man and  divine.  Social,  political  and  industrial  upheaval, 
and  the  ill-advised  and  revengeful  reconstruction  legisla- 
tion have  failed  to  produce  legitimate  results  because  of  the 
former  good  feeling  between  master  and  servant  and  the 
patient  and  good  conduct  which,  in  the  aggregate,  has 
marked  the  two  peoples.  The  inexcusable lynchings  and  the 
atrocious  crimes  which  caused  them  have  been  surprisingly 
few,  and  are  not  justly  chargeable  against  the  great  mass  of 

A  Tremendous  Push  Upward. 

either  race.  The  exemption  from  strikes  at  the  South, 
from  the  lawlessness  of  organized  and  assertive  labor,  the 
beneficial  effects  of  good  climate,  fertile  soil,  rich  mineral 
resources,  the  spur  from  impoverishment  to  greater  indus- 
try and  economy,  the  better  prices  for  some  agricultural 
products,  have  lately  given  the  South  a  tremendous  push 
upward.  Every  patriot  should  labor  for  a  better  under- 
standing of  his  fellow  citizens,  for  the  obliteration  of  the 
last  vestige  of  sectional  prejudice  and  bitterness,  for  the 
enlightenment  of  opnion,  for  the  consummation  of  equal 
and  exact  justice  to  both  races,  for  the  uplifting  of  Ameri- 


i6 


can  citizenship,  for  the  strengthening  and  ennobling  of  all 
influences  which  will  perpetuate  free,  representative  insti- 
tutions, add  to  our  prosperity  and  happiness,  and  make 
more  lustrous  and  beneficent  our  example  to  all  peoples, 
struggling  for  free  government,  based  on  intelligence, 
integrity  and  capacity. 


Photomount 

Pamphlet 

Binder 

Gaylord  Bros, 

Makers 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

PAT.  JAN  21,  1903 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


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